Five years ago, Matteo Salvini stripped and posed half-naked for a series of “sexy” photos that were auctioned on eBay. At the time, he was a senior official of Italy’s separatist Lega Nord party. His bizarre photoshoot took place on the sidelines of a National Front conference in France. Beneficiaries of the auction included part of an Italian anti-abortion network that claims to be “inspired” by the “heritage of Christian culture” and responds to a “conspiracy against life.”

Today, Salvini’s party has transformed itself into one of the most prominent nationalist movements in Europe (now known only as Lega). Salvini himself has become Italy’s interior minister and the country’s most recognizable politician, emboldened by stunning results in the recent European Parliament elections, in which his party won a third of Italian votes (about five times more than the 6 percent it received in 2014).

ERIC ZUESSE, ORIGINALLY POSTED AT THE SAKER
The success of Turkey’s takeover of Syria’s most pro-jihadist province, Idlib, is making less and less likely that Syria will be able to continue maintaining Idlib as being a part of Syria. (This is something I had predicted, back on 14 September 2018, to be possible or even likely, and now it is actually happening.) On July 10th, Reuters headlined “Assad hits a wall in Syrian war as front lines harden”, and reported that, “More than two months of Russian-backed operations in and around Idlib province have yielded little or nothing for Assad’s side. It marks a rare case of a military campaign that has not gone his way since Russia intervened in 2015. While resisting government attacks, the insurgents have managed to carve out small advances of their own, drawing on ample stocks of guided anti-tank missiles that opposition and diplomatic sources say have been supplied by Turkey.” It continues:

In 2018, Sweden experienced a record number of lethal shootings, 306 in all. Forty-five people were killed and 135 injured nationwide, most deaths occurring in Region South, where Malmö is located. In March, the Swedish National Forensic Centre estimated that since 2012, the number of shootings classified as murder or attempted murder has increased by almost 100 percent. The Centre also found that the most popular weapon used in the shootings is the Kalashnikov assault rifle. "It is one of the world's most manufactured weapons and used in many wars," said the Centre's team manager, Mikael Högfors. "When they are no longer needed... they are smuggled into Sweden".

The CEO of Volvo warns that the company is considering moving its headquarters out of Sweden in the future, partly due to a rise in violent crime.

Håkan Samuelsson told a conference that the car maker was losing its appeal to foreign experts and engineers and further explained his concerns during an interview with SVD Näringsliv.

“We are building cars, we cannot solve the other problems, someone else must do that,” the CEO said, adding that it is becoming more difficult to attract workers due to Sweden’s worsening reputation.

“It’s definitely not helping when people read about shootings in Gothenburg and wonder if they really dare to move to Gothenburg,” said Samuelsson.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the construction of a new tolled motorway across Russia designed to significantly shorten cargo routes, local media reported. The project is expected to cost around $9.5 billion.

The massive infrastructure project, the Meridian highway, has won the support of the Russian government, Vedomosti business daily said, citing government officials. The highway is set to stretch over 2,000km from the Belarus border to the frontier with Kazakhstan, and it is expected to become part of the fastest trucking route between China and Europe.

Amid an awkward diplomatic row between the UK and US following leaked cables sent from Britain's ambassador to the United States back to London which described President Trump as "inept," "insecure" and "incompetent," the United Kingdom joined France Tuesday in being among the only US allies to heed the administration's call to bolster forces in Syria.

Notably Germany has rebuffed the US request to deploy additional troops as part of the "anti-ISIS coalition" primarily in Syria's north and east after US special envoy James Jeffrey told Die Welt’s Sunday edition that,"We want ground forces from Germany to partially replace our soldiers." This as the Pentagon plans a draw down in line with Trump's longtime promise to the American public of a "full" and "complete" withdrawal which has been long delayed since last year over concerns that either pro-Assad and Iranian forces or Turkey could fill the vacuum.

Turkey and Europe are headed for a showdown in the eastern Mediterranean over Turkish plans for oil and gas exploration and drilling in Cypriot-recognized waters, with the European Union reportedly now mulling cutting financial assistance to Turkey over the illegal drilling. EU envoys are reportedly meeting Wednesday to discuss various punitive measures against Turkey, including suspending aviation talks and even sanctions.

The latest crisis was triggered after Turkish drilling vessel Yavuz sailed to an area off Cyprus’ east coast at the start of this week — the second to follow a first drilling vessel, Fatih, which had already been exploring in Cypriot waters. Notably, the vessels have been accompanied by the Turkish military, including drones, F-16 fighters, and warships.

Swedish author Björn Ranelid warns that the level of crime and violence the previously sedate country is experiencing amounts to a “small scale war”.

Israel Hayom reported, Thursday, that Israel is disappointed with the expected appointment of Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as the new EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

According to the newspaper, Borrell will replace the current High Representative, Federica Mogherini, who was an unpopular figure in Israel because of her stubborn support for the Iran nuclear deal and for her relatively pro-Palestinian tendencies.

Following the European Parliamentary elections – wherein traditionally dominant factions lost ground – Israel was hoping for a shift in foreign policy toward the Right.

One month ago, Jeff Gundlach - in his latest DoubleLine investor call - cracked jokes that Deutsche Bank's imploding stock, which has been hitting fresh all time lows virtually every day, had "major support" at €0.

Once again, he was on to something because just a few days later, the FT first reported that the bank which was this close to nationalization in 2016, and failed to consummate a merger with that "other" German bank, Commerzbank, was preparing to roll out Plan Z: amid a deep overhaul of its trading operations (read: mass terminations), the biggest German lender was set to roll out a "bad bank" holding some €50 billion in legacy toxic derivative assets, a plan that was quite popular in the depths of the global financial crisis.

As we noted at the time, it would hardly come as a surprise that the German bank best known for housing €43.5 trillion in gross derivatives notional (something we first pointed out way back in 2013)...

An alleged shooter on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March has said he rejects Dutch law while appearing in a local court in the Netherlands.

Turkish-born Gokmen Tanis allegedly boarded the tram before opening fire indiscriminately, killing four people, including a 49-year-old father of two children and a 74-year old man, who died several days after the shooting.

"I am not a democrat. I don't recognise you or your court," Dutch news agency ANP quoted the 37-year-old suspect as telling the judges during Monday's pre-trial hearing. He said he didn't need a defence lawyer since he had "already confessed".

As the 37-year-old was led out of the court following the brief session, the father of one of the victims yelled: "Coward! Coward! You're a pig."

Denmark will become the third Nordic country this year to form a leftist government after Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen agreed terms for a one-party minority government late on Wednesday.

While the new left-leaning government is unlikely to fundamentally change Danish economic policy, Frederiksen, who at 41 becomes Denmark's youngest prime minister, has promised to increase welfare spending after years of austerity.

Sicily is continuing its fight against NATO's MUOS satellite systems. The Mobile User Objective System is a high-frequency narrow-band military satellite communications system that consists of 4 geostationary satellites and 4 ground-based receiving stations that NATO uses to communicate and transfer commands to its submarines, fighters and drones.

One of these MUOS stations is located in Niscemi, Sicily.

Last week, on June 21, people from all over Sicily protested against the 'occupation' by military bases. More than a thousand people marched in Catania under the slogans: “US - Out of Italy, Italy - Out of NATO”, “Sicily will be better off without MUOS and Sigonella” [Sigonella - a NATO military base - Sputnik], and “Yankees Go Home.”

There are numerous reports that an influx of migrants is overwhelming the already-fragile system in the Balkans. You may think this is not pertinent if you don’t live in Europe. But just like the collapse of Venezuela, the Balkan War, and the collapse of Greece, there are patterns of behavior to which attention should be paid.

Here’s a quick video with a glimpse at the situation occurring right now in Bihac, a city of about 61,000 people in the northwestern corner of Bosnia.

NATO defense ministers will hold talks on Wednesday over their next move if Russia doesn't destroy a new missile system that could allow for short-notice nuclear attacks throughout Europe, which the United States has said violates the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), according to Reuters.

"We call on Russia to take the responsible path, but we have seen no indication that Russia intends to do so," said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at a news conference, adding "We will need to respond."

While he declined to go into further detail, diplomats have said their defense ministers will consider allowing more flights over Europe by nuclear-capable US warplanes, as well as more military training and the strategic repositioning of US sea-based missiles.

The dispute has deepened a fissure in East-West ties that severely deteriorated after Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its involvement in Syria. -Reuters

NATO defense ministers will hold talks on Wednesday over their next move if Russia doesn't destroy a new missile system that could allow for short-notice nuclear attacks throughout Europe, which the United States has said violates the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), according to Reuters.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg
"We call on Russia to take the responsible path, but we have seen no indication that Russia intends to do so," said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at a news conference, adding "We will need to respond."

While he declined to go into further detail, diplomats have said their defense ministers will consider allowing more flights over Europe by nuclear-capable US warplanes, as well as more military training and the strategic repositioning of US sea-based missiles.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is fending off corruption charges, trouble in parliament, and a countrywide protest movement against his government. Hundreds of thousands have rallied against him in Prague.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will run straight through the Baltic Sea, delivering Russian natural gas directly to Germany. For once, Democrats and Republicans in the US agree on something: The project is a really bad idea.

Those who think of Switzerland as a quaint land of cuckoo clocks and chocolate are sorely mistaken. To paraphrase Voltaire’s bon mot about Prussia, Switzerland is a giant fortress, disguised as a country.

I attended school and university in Switzerland. Over the decades, I kept hearing about mountains opening up to disgorge warplanes, or cliffs studded with hidden artillery. But even my Swiss friends didn’t know much about these seemingly fantastic sightings.

Fifteen years ago, I was the guest of the Swiss Fortress Guard Corps, a top-secret military outfit that operates Switzerland’s mountain fortresses. I was one of the first non-Swiss to be shown the mountain forts that guard the heart of the nation’s ‘Alpine Redoubt.’ What I was shown astounded me – and continues to do so.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Prague demanding that PM Andrej Babis resign.

Mr Babis is facing a criminal investigation over alleged fraud, and is also the subject of an EU conflict-of-interest investigation. He denies the allegations.

Organisers say about 250,000 people attended the rally. The figure could not be verified.

It is said to be the largest protest since the fall of communism in 1989.

Who was marching?
The protest was organised by the Million Moments for Democracy group. The movement has grown from a small student initiative into a mass movement.

What are the allegations against Babis?

The prime minister is facing a criminal investigation in the Czech Republic for alleged abuse of €2 m in EU subsidies over 10 years ago.

Europe proved to be the biggest spender on US-made arms last year, and is expected to retain a devouring appetite for the weapons in near future, shows one report.

The continent accounted for nearly a quarter of the $55.7 billion in foreign arms sales that the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) handled in the 2018 fiscal year, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing US Army Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, the DSCA’s director.

Various US arms makers, who were cited by the news agency, including Lockheed Martin and Boeing, also said that the European demand for warplanes, missile systems, and other weapons was growing.

Apparently in anticipation of high demand, Washington sent an especially-ranking delegation, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to the Paris Airshow this year. The expo showcased products by nearly 400 US companies.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview that he is interested in direct talks with Iran without preconditions. At the same time, he dismissed the European point of view that Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, arguing that it is EU business interests talking.

Trump commented on Washington’s point of view on the 2015 Joint Cooperative Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran in a Sunday interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, saying he would accept any kind of deal with Iran, as long as it prevents Tehran from getting nuclear weapons. Trump suggested that he has no issue with the deal being bilateral or multilateral.

“I don't care which, what kind of a deal. It can be separate or it could be total,” he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's pro-immigrant stance hardly correlates with Germany's inhuman practices, Italian political observers say commenting on the recent exposure of Berlin's method's for transferring unwanted migrants back to the countries where they first entered the EU.

Germany is sending "bound and sedated" migrants back to Italy, La Repubblica, a centre-left Italian daily, broke on 15 June, adding that what's going on looks more like "human trafficking" rather than a transfer under the EU's Dublin Regulation 604/2013.

The Dublin convention stipulates that rejected refugees should be sent to "the responsible member state" i.e. the country through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU.

The "invasion" took place as part of the ongoing joint drills between the Romanian Land Forces and the US Army across the Southeast European country.

Romania's Defence Ministry has confirmed that an incident took place in Ialomita County, southeastern Romania on Thursday in which several US armoured vehicles accidentally drove onto private farmland containing wheat and corn crops, causing an as yet unspecified amount of damage.

A Romanian Facebook user uploaded video footage of the incident, showing vehicles including a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, and a Humvee support vehicle driving over the crops, leaving large tracks in the fields in their wake.

Madrid has raised fresh complaints about British military presence in Gibraltar while continuing to resist NATO pressure to bar the Russian navy from refueling at the nearby port of Ceuta.

The Spanish ambassador to the United Nations, Agustín Santos Maraver, called out the UK for their military installations in Gibraltar during a scathing speech to the UN Committee on Decolonization on Monday.

Sweden will employ hundreds of new police officers in an effort to tackle a growing trend of sexual offences against vulnerable people and children.

Mats Löfving, head of the police’s national operational department, Noa, commented on the new policy saying: “For me, this is incredibly big, I think it is the biggest and most important investment I have had in my time in the police. It is perhaps the most vulnerable group that we are helping, women and children, who are exposed to violent and sexual offences,” Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.

According to police, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Crime Prevention Council, the number of sexual offences within relationships and where children are victims, is increasing with only half of the reported rape cases in Sweden seeing any kind of resolution.

Södertälje is the latest city in Sweden to see yet another explosion, with police describing the blast as being strong enough to be heard 100 yards away.

Police say that they are still uncertain as to the nature of the explosion, which occurred at around 3am on Friday in Geneta, a neighbourhood in the Västertälje district of the Södertälje municipality. Peter Asp, the officer in charge of Stockholm Police’s management centre, told Swedish broadcaster SVT: “We are trying to sort out what has happened, but before the technicians have investigated, we do not know exactly what has happened.”

“It was so strong that people some 100 metres from there have reported it,” he added, with the broadcaster noting the blast happened in the vicinity of St. Afrem’s church.

The Pentagon earlier released a video, claiming to show an Iranian patrol boat removing a mine from the side one of the tankers targeted in the Gulf of Oman as "proof" of the US accusations that Tehran is behind the attacks. The Islamic Republic has strongly denied its involvement and urged Washington to stop false flag ops in the region.

Some European governments have refused to back the US allegations that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on 13 June.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has, for instance, insisted that the footage made public by the US Central Command allegedly showing Iranian sailors removing an unexploded mine from one of the vessels' hull was insufficient to corroborate Washington's claims.

"The video is not enough. We can understand what is being shown, sure, but to make a final assessment, this is not enough for me", Maas told reporters on Friday.